Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Though Time and Space Separate Us... ❯ Sudden Departure ( Chapter 3 )

"Dryden? What are you doing on Ear- the Mystic Moon?" Hitomi stammered, as he let go of her wrist. She quickly pocketed her dirty card and stared up at Dryden, waiting for an answer. Dryden leaned against the alley wall.

"To tell you without an explanation would be too difficult." he answered simply. Hitomi knew there would be a long story coming up, so she said, "Let's go back to my house, get out of this rain, okay?" The odd couple, Hitomi in her bright yellow raincoat, and Dryden in his long brown cloak, walked down the street to Hitomi's house. For the first time, Hitomi was glad for the rain cover that night, because she and Dryden sure stood out.

When they got inside the house, as Hitomi removed her coat and as Dryden took off his drenched robes, he told his story. He explained that he used an energist to get to the Mystic Moon. She looked at it as Dryden held it out for her to see. Was it Escaflowne's energist? It must be a real emergency if Van let Dryden have it to get here. Hitomi listened patiently as he continued, while she made him a cup of tea.

"It was really hard to find you." he began, "I needed Van's help."

"Van?" Hitomi said, as she handed him the warm tea. He took it gratefully.

"Yeah," he continued, "so many countries and languages exist on this Mystic Moon. Van told me that your native language was- uh- Japanese, was it?" Hitomi nodded.

"Well, that narrowed it down a lot. I decided to look here, in- in J-Japan, for you. Lucky I found you though. There are so many people on this planet, I almost lost hope." Dryden explained.

"Why did you need to find me?" Hitomi asked. Dryden shifted in his chair, putting his teacup on the end table.

"Van... needs to see you."

"Why?" Hitomi asked.

"Well, since his brother died, Van feels a huge responsibility on his shoulders. Now that Fanelia has been rebuilt, everyone is looking to him about their problems. We're not sure if he can handle it all. I feel that it's my duty as a fellow king to help him with his problems so we- uh, Allen, Millerna, Merle, and I- thought he needed to see you in his time of need. We're sure that if you're there, he'll feel better." Dryden finished.

Hitomi's hands tightened over the teapot as she poured a cup for herself.

"If Van wanted to see me so badly, why didn't he come himself?" she asked in a dry tone. Dryden slumped in his chair, stumped for an answer. After a few minutes of awkward silence, he spoke.

"We're afraid he's forgetting you." Hitomi dropped her tea, the scalding liquid burning her arm.

"Hitomi!" Dryden exclaimed, grabbing her arm and examining it closely. However, Hitomi didn't feel it. How could Van be forgetting her? He had her pendant to remind him, didn't he? Just then, she felt Dryden pouring water on her burn and it brought her back and she realized her pain.

"Van is... forgetting me?" she said as Dryden applied some ointment to her arm.

"Hitomi, don't worry about it. I'm sure Van still remembers you. How could he not?" What he said made sense, but Hitomi just feared for the worst. "We're just concerned that he's drawing away from everyone he used to know. He no longer spends any time with any of us. Merle- she was the one to suggest you come back."

"Merle?" Hitomi couldn't believe that Merle would ever let her get close to 'her' Van, let alone touch him in comfort.

"Yeah, she told us, 'Hitomi will make Lord Van better.' And Merle knows what's best for Van." Dryden put his ointment away and asked, "Is that better?" Hitomi had forgotten she was burned, but she nodded.

"Hitomi, would you consider-" Dryden began.

"No. I'm not going back to Gaea."

"What?"

"Is that all I am to you?" Hitomi said in a shaky voice. "Van's pacifier? I need to make him feel better? None of you just wanted to see me?" Dryden, taken aback, shook his head violently.

"No, no! Of course we all wanted to see you, but-"

"But what? If none of you can help Van, how can you expect me to do anything?!" Hitomi clenched her fists to stop them from shaking. Dryden stood up as well, bending down to look her in the face.

"Because you love him." Hitomi leaned against the dining table, shaken by his answer. No, she thought. When did this become common knowledge? It's not true. I can't let that rumour keep going.

"I don't, we're just friends." Hitomi said simply. Dryden seemed to accept that, but he didn't stop there.

"Even if you are just friends, he needs you. Will you come with me to Gaea?" She looked away from him, as if thinking of an answer, when she was really just stalling for time. She must have kept him waiting for awhile because she heard the chair he was sitting in scrape as he pushed it in.

"I know it's selfish of us to ask for you to come if you don't want to." he said. "But at least think about it, will you?" Hitomi nodded as Dryden opened the door, bringing in the cold wind, and left. The slammed door was obviously because of the wind, but Hitomi felt like Dryden was mad at her. Of course he was. Who wouldn't be? He didn't know how she felt. Hitomi collapsed into a chair.

"If Van is forgetting me, then who cares? At least I'm not causing him any pain by letting him forget that I ever existed." Hitomi thought. She wanted to go to him, she really wanted to. But it was selfish to put herself back into his life, being such a pest, just so she could see him again. She would not give into that selfishness. Never.

What about that vision? That vision of Van being killed. Her visions were never a joke. Only she knew about it. Only she could do anything to save him. She had to help him, as his dear friend and confidante. It was more important than the fear of interfering with his life; this was, in fact, his life at stake. Despite that she was angry with him for forgetting her, she still cared. Hitomi stood up, slipping on her raincoat. She ran to the door, wrenching it open with all her might.

"Dryden!" she yelled, the wind throwing her voice away with it. A figure stood in front of her.

"Dryden?" Hitomi looked closer; the figure wore a robe. Was it him? He walked up to her and grabbed her round the waist, swinging her through the air. She heard his familiar laugh.

"I knew you'd change your mind! Welcome back, Hitomi!" Hitomi sighed; for a second there, she had not known it was him. She smiled as Dryden put her down.

"Actually, Dryden, this will be good for me too. You know, to see you all again. Well, you see, I've been feeling down myself for the last few months." Dryden looked at her as she continued. "I can't explain why, but just thinking about the future, I feel bleak, like I'm standing in the middle of a tundra. I can't think about what will happen to me anymore."

"Hitomi..." he said in a low voice, not sure if she could hear him or not.

"Well, aren't we going? Let's go!" Hitomi took his hand, planning to go to a stretch of land where no one would see who they were. The park. As Hitomi passed by the shrine, she remembered the night Van had first appeared, on a quest to slay a wicked dragon. It was still unbelievable; the dragon corpse had lay right here next to the shrine. Then that pillar of light had sucked her and Van to that world... to Gaea.

Once hidden in the mass of trees, Hitomi turned to Dryden.

"I'm ready if you are." she said, her eyes blazing. He smiled at her determination; Van wouldn't be so withdrawn even two minutes after she came. He nodded, raising the energist to the sky. A haze of light formed around his hand and spread, around their bodies, surrounding them entirely. Hitomi felt the familiar, yet strange sensation of being pulled from the ground and floating upwards. She felt Dryden's free arm wrap around her so they wouldn't be separated, and she clutched onto his arm for support. The feeling was so relaxing that she closed her eyes and almost went to sleep.

Before she knew it, her feet had touched solid ground once again. For some reason, she expected the night to be clear on Gaea, but it wasn't. The weather was almost, if not entirely, the same as it was on Earth. In fact, the incredibly strong wind threatened to separate the two new arrivals.

"Hitomi! Hang onto me!" Dryden yelled. As they made their way through the woods, he commented on the weather.
"I've never seen it like this, at least not in Asturia!" Often he had to repeat himself because the wind was roaring so loud, so they continued on in silence.

"We can't be far from Palas! I'm sure of it!" Dryden said after awhile. Hitomi hoped he was right; this storm was not fit for anyone to be in. The two approached the summit of a hill. Dryden kept hollering that he knew this hill and they would be there in no time. When they reached the top of the hill, he was sure he was right.

Palas lay below. Hitomi breathed in deeply. The sea air seemed to be magnified during the night, coupled with the dew of the nearby forest. It was a wanderer's refuge, especially in weather like this. The lights were a comfort to the two on the top of the hill, set out for travellers like themselves.

Dryden, giving a laugh of triumph, grabbed Hitomi's hand and started racing down the hill, the downward slope forcing her to go faster and faster until, when Dryden stopped abruptly, Hitomi fell to the ground. She gazed up at the raging sky as if it were a beautiful clear sky filled with stars. Dryden appeared standing over her, laughing at her strange position on the ground.

Just then, Hitomi began to laugh. An innocent laugh, like a child at play. The first time in over a year. This rain must have woken up her cheerful self that lay in waiting for the last year. It gave her a pain in her side to laugh, but at that moment, she didn't care. They both must have looked like complete fools laughing in the storm, and what would everyone think when they came back, soaked to the bone but yet with grins on their faces? Dryden offered her his hand, and Hitomi stood up, falling against him, as she was still laughing.

"They say crazy weather creates crazy fools, don't you think?" he said, through gasps of laughter. Hitomi nodded.

"What do you say we go see everyone?" she asked. So the odd couple made their way to the palace, realizing how stupid they must look, with their clothes weighing down under the rain. As they climbed the lengthy stairs, the guards on duty, wearing rubber cloaks that covered their whole bodies, started at their sudden arrival.

"Who goes there?!" they demanded.

"Relax, you guys. It's only me." Dryden replied. The guards stiffened.

"K-King Dryden? Welcome back, sir! I trust your trip was a safe and prosperous one." the guard on the left replied. Dryden laughed heartily.

"Sure as hell it was! I got what I was looking for." He gave Hitomi a pat on the back, making her blush furiously. The guards laughed at her, but Dryden only said, "Can we come in already? It's a hurricane out here." The guards quickly obliged, opening each door from his own respective side. Hitomi loved the inside of the palace. The hallway was very spacious, with a stone floor, decorated only by a red carpet which led to a throne, occupied by the King only when foreign ambassadors visited with matters of state and business and presented them to him. The pillars surrounding either side of the walls allowed for entrances into other rooms in the palace. The ceiling expanded wide overhead, a beautiful golden colour, held up by the pillars.

Hitomi was too busy admiring her surroundings to hear the bounding leaps of a figure who, until recently, had been watching from the shadows. She raced up to Hitomi until finally Hitomi looked her way.

"NO, MERLE, STOP!!!" But her cries went unheeded as Merle, the cat-girl, jumped on her, knocking her to the floor. She crawled over the flattened Hitomi, licking her face cheerfully. Dryden looked at the pair, snickering to himself.

"How have you been, Merle?" Hitomi asked with a tone of annoyance, as she sat up.

"I missed you , Big Sister Hitomi!" Merle jumped on Hitomi again, knocking her to the floor once again. For a cat-girl, she was pretty strong. Hitomi smiled, patting her on the head, although she didn't understand the 'Big Sister' thing.

"Uh... Merle?" she asked in a muffled voice, since Merle was lying on top of her.

"Yeah, Hitomi?"

"Can I get up now?" Merle sheepishly got up, although she still kept clinging to Hitomi.

"Who else is here, Dryden?" Hitomi looked up at him as she took her coat off.

"I wouldn't know. I've been on the Mystic Moon for awhile and- oh no!" Dryden slapped his forehead suddenly.

"What?" Hitomi asked. Merle looked over with a sly grin on her face.

"Ah! I know! King Dryden missed the annual conference! You were laughed at something bad!" she teased. Dryden stood stiffly, but Hitomi knew he was embarrassed. Merle sighed.

"Don't worry, the princess took care of it." she explained, waving her hand as if dismissing the problem. "Ha! What would you do without Millerna taking care of business?" Merle sneered. Hitomi giggled.

"I totally forgot! Damn it, I'm stupid!" Dryden laughed as they made their way down the hall. Merle bounded ahead, bragging that she had been here so long that she knew the palace better than Dryden.

"You wish!" he yelled after her as she ran into one of the rooms. Hitomi laughed at them. However, Dryden leaned over and whispered in her ear, "She probably does know the palace better than I do." Hitomi laughed again, for she knew that Dryden didn't stay here very often. He was always off on some journey of interest only to him, in fact he seemed only to be paying Palas a visit, he was gone so often. On the other hand, his journeys had obtained Asturia new products that weren't previously available under King Aston. Hitomi followed Merle into the room she had gone into and discovered it was a library.

"Ah, my favourite room." Dryden came up behind her. Hitomi scanned the room. This library was huge! When she looked around for Dryden, she found him already buried in a book of myths. She smiled, sighing at his predictable behaviour of book-loving. In the corner of the room, she saw a figure whom she would never expect to be in a library.

"Allen?" Hitomi stammered. He looked up and his eyes widened in surprise.

"H-Hitomi?" he was standing near the shelf and quickly put the book he was reading on the shelf next to him, running over to her.

"Is it really you?" he asked, cupping her face in his gloved hands. Hitomi nodded. He took his hands from her face and put his arms around her. Allen. I missed you too, she thought.

"What were you reading?" Hitomi asked when they had parted. Just then, Merle popped in between them, holding Allen's book.

"Hmm..." she said inquisitively, " 'What to do when women reject you'. Interesting." Allen stiffened, grabbing the book out of Merle's hand, and she bounced away giggling. Allen hid the book behind his back almost shyly. Hitomi giggled.

"Oh well. Everyone has a hobby." she said.

"I wasn't reading it, just looking at the cover. Hey, Dryden! Why do you have this in your library?" Allen yelled over to him, waving the book around. Dryden put his finger to his lips.

"Shh, this is a library." he said. Allen sighed.

"Let's leave this bookworm alone. No doubt he'll be gone tomorrow, so we'd better find Millerna so she can at least say 'hi' to him." he said, taking Hitomi's hand and leading her out of the library.

Millerna was in the dining room, talking to the chef. She had a lot of hungry mouths to feed, what with the kings and their wives and attendants, there were over three hundred people in the thankfully large palace.

"Millerna!" Hitomi called. She turned around and had pretty much the same reaction as Allen.

"H-Hitomi?" She excused herself to the chef and gave Hitomi a hug. Hitomi was confused. Merle, Allen, and Millerna were all surprised to see her?

"Didn't any of you know I was coming?" she said, as she looked from Millerna to Allen.

"No... why would we? How did you get here?" Millerna asked.

"Dryden..." Hitomi felt silly, showing up so unexpectedly.

"That Dryden... he just does what he feels like." Allen grated. "Of course, we're glad to see you Hitomi, but he should have told us what he was going to do. I mean, we could have had a party to welcome you back!" Hitomi couldn't help laughing.

"Not on a night like this!" she managed to say. She gathered them both in a group hug.

"A-hem, Miss Millerna." Hitomi's head shot up. The chef was looking in on their little show of affection and they all stepped back.

"I still need to know what an ideal side dish for King Van would be." he said impatiently.

"Van!" Hitomi said. "I need to see him."

"You go ahead. I'll be busy for awhile yet." Millerna waved them off. So Hitomi and Allen walked down the hall, up to Van's room. Hitomi breathed in and out swiftly, but she didn't have time to stand around as Allen was there to open the door. She looked in, but no one was there. The room didn't even look used.

"Are you sure this is Van's room?" Hitomi walked inside, Allen following close behind.

"Yes, I'm sure. I was here earlier today to announce the beginning to the conference." Hitomi was puzzled. On the green sheets on the bed, she saw a piece of paper.

"Maybe this has something to do with it." Allen glanced over at Hitomi as she picked it up.

"It's a note. From Van!" Allen walked over to her side to see it as she read aloud:

To whom it may concern,

I have left for Fanelia earlier as some urgent business came up. I'm sorry I cannot join in the feast
with my equals tonight. Please forgive my rude and unexpected departure. I will make it up to you somehow.

Sincerely,
Van Fanel
King of Fanelia

"Van's left?" Hitomi held the note to her breast as Allen crossed his arms in annoyance.

"That workaholic. He can't even wait for you to come see him." Hitomi felt nervous. How could he even think of travelling in this weather? It must have been serious to pack up so quickly and leave without telling anyone.

"Do you think he's all right, Allen?" she whispered. Allen gazed at her, snapping out of his impatience.

"Don't worry, Hitomi." Then he laughed. "You're always worried about him, more than he is about himself. Some things never change." She turned to him, a terrified expression on her face.

"I want to go to him! For all I know, he could be-" Allen put his hands on her shoulders.

"Wait until tomorrow. It's probably been a long day for you and you need your rest." He gestured to her to follow him to a room she could use. Hitomi shook her head.

"No thanks. I think I'll stay here for tonight." Allen nodded, smiling at her as he left.

Hitomi opened the closet and selected a nightgown to sleep in. As she slipped it on, she picked up Van's note and read it again. It was strange; he had obviously covered a lot today at the conference. What was this 'urgent business' that he was talking about? Placing the note on the bedside table, she crawled into bed and lay with her hands behind her head, wondering about his sudden leave until sleep overcame her at last.